IPA phoneme \ʊə\
British English ʊə ɔː sure /ʃʊər, ʃɔːr/ |4=Strict IPA }} In Received Pronunciation, the IPA phonetic symbol corresponds to the diphthong sound in words like "cure" and "tour" Currently in Received Pronunciation this phoneme is disappearing, in favor of in the so-called CURE-FORCE merger (also called pour-poor merger).Wikipedia, English-language vowel changes before historic /r/ § Pour-poor merger For example "tour" is pronounced either /tʊər/ or /tɔːr/. "Sure" can be pronounced either or /ʃɔːr/. In General American, on the other hand, /ʊər/ and /ʊr/ can be pronounced ʊər at the end of the syllable or before a consonantMerriam-Webster's Learners Dictionary, poor as ˈpuɚ or ʊr before a vowel.Merriam-Webster's Learners Dictionary, tourist as ˈturɪst. Since the difference is predictable it can be said that General American doesn't have an /ʊə/ phoneme. This should be called “CURE pronounced as FOOT” or (less precisely) “the CURE-FOOT merger” but we could find only one reference, as a comment in a blog.Language log, Comment by dw July 30, 2010 @ 12:20 am. See IPA phoneme /ʊ/. In the United States a few words with /ʊər/ can be pronounced ɜːr. This is called the CURE-NURSE merger (also called cure-fir merger).Wikipedia, English-language vowel changes before historic /r/ § Cure-fir merger See IPA phoneme /ɜː/ and the Advanced material section. In Received Pronunciation /ʊər/ and /ɔːr/ are pronounced ʊə and ɔː unless they are followed by a vowel, i.e. the "r" is normally silent unless it is followed by a vowel. In General American the "r" is always pronounced. There are places in the United Kingdom where the "r" is pronounced, and places in North America where it is not pronounced. Examples Some words which practice the pronunciation of /ʊə/ include the following, taken from Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary unless otherwise noted: * Not merging into /ɔ:/ (i.e. with ʊə sound in Received Pronunciation) :/jʊə/: :bureau, curious, during, endure, Europe, European, furious, fury, impure, manicure, neuron, neurosis, pure, puritan, purity, secure, security, spurious, urine :/ʊə/: mature /məˈtʃʊər/, Missouri, rural * Partially merged into /ɔ:/ (i.e. with either a ʊə sound or ɔː sound in Received Pronunciation) :/jʊə/ or /jɔː/: cure, you're :/ʊə/ or /ɔː/: :ensure, jurySpeech talk, The demise of ʊə as in CURE, poor, sure, tour, tourist * Fully merged into /ɔː/ (i.e. only some Americans pronounce it ʊə or ʊ) :/jɔː/: your * There are more homophones in Received Pronunciation than in American English: poor - pore; sure - shore: Advanced material Received Pronunciation In Received Pronunciation some words marked as "Not merging into /ɔ:/" above are actually merging into u:ə, with two syllables (similar to the pronunciation of "fuel"). For example, "secure" might be pronounced either /sɪˈkjʊər/ or /sɪˈkju:ər/. Some people use the monophthong /uː/, pronouncing, for example "rural" as /ˈru:rəl/ instead of /ˈrʊərəl/. Still other people have another monophthong in their pronunciation of /ʊə/, namely ɵː. See The demise of ʊə as in CURE Fate 3 to hear clips with this sound. United States In General American /ʊə®/ is /ʊr/ and may be pronounced ʊər or ʊr depending on its position in the word. However some specific words in some parts of the United States are merged into /ɜːr/. All examples taken from Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary (MWLD) at http://www.learnersdictionary.com/ where they appear as only pronunciation (note that /ɚ/ in MWLD is /ɜːr/ in this wiki). Only "sure" and its derivatives appear in the Random House Dictionary, and only as a second pronunciation. *from "sure" /ɜːr/ : assurance, assure, ensure, insurance, insure, sure, surely */jɜːr/: bureau, cure, curious, manicure, pure, puritan, purity, secure, security, spurious, urine */ɜːr/: endure, jury Not merging into /ɜː/ These examples have u, ʊ or uɚ in the narrow notation used by Merriam-Webster's. In this wiki's broad notation we use /ʊ/ or simply /ʊə/. *during, Europe, European, furious, fury, impure, neurosis, poor, tour, tourism, tourist Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1 It is a dilemma to teach students a pronunciation that is falling out of use. The words that still have ʊə in Received Pronunciation are very few. When teaching General American the /ʊ/ pronunciation should be taught: cure as ˈkjʊər and curable as ˈkjʊrəbəl. The following section aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation. Spanish Spanish speakers don't confuse this phoneme with others, but they tend to pronounce it as u:ə, which, as shown above, is not uncommon for native speakers. References External links *British Library: Learning - Sounds Familiar? Vowel /ue/ ue